Looking for a winter vacation but your knees and dislike of the cold preclude a ski vacation? Try Phoenix and its upscale neighbor Scottsdale.
With its rugged mountains and desert landscape, the Phoenix area offers a striking contrast to Florida, but with the same glorious winter weather – daily highs in the 70’s. And as one of the country’s largest metropolitan areas, it’s packed with fine dining, great shopping, outstanding museums and world-class resorts.
A friend and I stayed at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas for a long weekend in late fall. Thanks to my Hilton Honors membership, we received a complimentary upgrade to a two bedroom, two bath villa with a full kitchen, private patio, and a pool just steps away. The villa could easily have accommodated a family. Other fabulous resorts in Scottsdale include the Phoenician, with panoramic views of Camelback Mountain and Paradise Valley, and the classic Arizona Biltmore, designed in the 1920s by a protege of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Scottsdale resorts offer beautiful flowers, palm trees and bright skies. [ Susan Taylor Martin ]
Scottsdale is a shopping mecca. Fashion Square, one of the West’s largest malls, offers everything you would find at Tampa’s International Plaza and much, much more. Fifth Avenue in the city’s Old Town is home to numerous boutiques, as well as restaurants, cafes and galleries. But our favorite stop was TBC, which bills itself as “the best in luxury resale” — in other words, an upscale consignment shop. The first dress we saw upon entering was a unique strapless Balmain dress. Price: $18,000. That, and shelves full of Versace, Chanel and other couture fashions, speaks to the great wealth in Scottsdale, where mansions in the mountains can top $20 million.
In downtown Phoenix, 25 minutes from Scottsdale via wide, palm-lined streets, we spent an afternoon touring the city’s stunning Phoenix Art Museum with its vast collection of works ranging from the Renaissance to the Modern. A must-see, especially for dollhouse lovers, are the miniature rooms, which recreate in amazing detail an art deco Manhattan apartment, an 18th-century French music room, and other historic settings. Among the 100 rooms designed by Indiana resident Narcissa Niblack Thorne, they are 1:12 scale and even contain original artwork.
The Phoenix Art Museum has a large collection of works. [ Airi Katsuta ]
We enjoyed lunch at the museum’s Palette Restaurant, which has seating both indoors and in a pretty courtyard, before heading to the nearby Heard Museum. Established in 1929 to house the personal collection of Dwight and Mae Heard, it has grown into one of the premier museums of Native American art and culture. Exhibits include exquisite jewelry, hundreds of kachina dolls, and a sobering look at the boarding school experiences of Native American children in the 19th century.
A miniature Manhattan Art Deco Room at the Phoenix Art Museum [ Thorne Collection, Phoenix Art Museum ]Works at the Phoenix Art Museum, whose lobby is pictured, range from the Renaissance to the Modern. [ AIRI KATSUTA | Airi Katsuta ]The Phoenix Art Museum. [ Airi Katsuta ]
If you want to get some exercise, the area offers more than 200 golf courses and challenging but scenic hikes in the mountains. But my boyfriend opted for a pedicure and I for a shampoo and blow-dry at the elegant Spa Lamar in Scottsdale, Arizona’s largest resort-style day spa. With its low humidity, Arizona has a big advantage over Florida: every day is a great hair day!
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